Defendant blames low sugar for Bangor crash

Saturday

Dec 8, 2012 at 12:01 AM

John P. Heaney III, the retired Plainfield, N.J., cop on trial for vehicular homicide following a double-fatal wreck near Bangor in July 2011, testified Friday that he was not drunk but rather suffered an attack induced by low blood sugar.

The Express-Times

John P. Heaney III, the retired Plainfield, N.J., cop on trial for vehicular homicide following a double-fatal wreck near Bangor in July 2011, testified Friday that he was not drunk but rather suffered an attack induced by low blood sugar.

Heaney admitted to drinking about 24 ounces of beer and roughly two ounces of vodka during a fishing trip and then a later stop at the Jacksonian Democratic Club in Bangor.

It wasn't a lot of booze, prosecutors admitted, but they charged that Heaney's gastric bypass surgery three years prior would have allowed the alcohol to have a greater impact.

Heaney denied that Friday, but did admit that something went wrong only three minutes after leaving the club. As the 50-year-old headed northbound on Route 512, he crested a hill and came around a bend.

"I remember my arms dropping and not having any control," he said. Heaney said he remembers seeing a motorcycle flying off the corner of his car and then all went black.

Heaney's doctor, Robert Doll, who began seeing the 50-year-old this June, said the man's description of the event coupled with his subsequent medical problems likely means the wreck was not fueled by alcohol, but by a sudden drop in blood sugar.

But Doll said it would be hard for just about anyone to notice the difference.

"(The symptoms) can be confused," Doll said. "Observers may not be able to tell them apart."

Heaney refused a blood-alcohol test at the scene, and testified that in hindsight, he wishes he'd taken the test because he believes it would show his innocence — low blood sugar, not high alcohol.